Disc Brake for a Commercial Vehicle

ABSTRACT

A disc brake for a commercial vehicle has a brake caliper spanning a brake disc on the vehicle side, in which brake caliper a clamping device is arranged which has a pivotable brake lever engaging in at least one bridge carrying a brake plunger, which at the same time is directly or indirectly supported at the inner side of a wall of the brake caliper. The contact area of the bridge at the brake lever or of the brake lever at the brake caliper is configured as a pivot bearing having a bearing shell cross-sectionally configured as an arc forming a part of the pivot bearing. The bearing shell is placed in a seating. The disc brake is configured such that the bearing shell is located in the pivoting direction of the brake lever with its opposite longitudinal borders at stop edges, which longitudinally limit the trough-shaped seating.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of PCT International Application No.PCT/EP2015/074670, filed Oct. 23, 2015, which claims priority under 35U.S.C. §119 from German Patent Application No. 10 2014 115 762.1, filedOct. 30, 2014, the entire disclosures of which are herein expresslyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a disc brake for a commercial vehicle.

The clamping device of such a disc brake is pneumatically orelectromechanically actuatable, wherein for this purpose the clampingdevice has a pivotable brake lever, which in the support region isembodied as a cam and, on the one hand, supports itself on a wall of thebrake caliper and, on the other hand, on a displaceable bridge, for thepurpose of which in the latter case a roller is positioned between thebrake lever and the bridge.

For mounting the roller, a bearing shell which is configured in acircle-shaped arc in cross section is arranged in the brake lever, whichis held in a trough-like seating of the brake lever, for example byriveting.

This bearing shell is designed as a so-called DU mounting, with asubstrate, for example of steel, an intermediate layer of sintermaterial and a plastic coating, in order to obtain adequate slidingcapability, which however, due to design-related history, is providedwith a proportion of lead.

Under environmental aspects, the lead is considered problematic suchthat there are demands which aim at providing the bearing shell in aconfiguration which with respect to the material selection is notproblematic.

Independently of this, milling out of the substrate material of the DUmounting occurs with the known bearing shell with increasing servicelife because of the numerous pivot movements of the brake lever, so thatan optimized service life is not achieved.

Consequently, this leads to relatively high repair costs in order tocontinually ensure the operational safety of the disc brake. The costsresulting from this include the costs of the assembly and disassembly,the replacement part procurement, and the stoppage times of the vehiclefor the duration of the repair.

These costs are incurred more or less independently of where the slidingbearing is arranged. The bearing shell, as mentioned, can be provided inthe brake lever, where it then corresponds with a roller, which isconnected to the bridge. It can also be provided on the bridge itself,with forming of a roller or a comparable bead on the brake lever. And itcan be provided on the inside of a wall of the brake caliper, in thecase of which for completing the sliding bearing the roller is likewisemolded on or arranged as a bead on the brake lever. In this latter case,the replacement of the bearing shell proves to be particularlycomplicated and expensive because of the aggravated accessibility.

The invention is based on the object of further developing a disc brakeof the generic type so that its service life, in particular that of theclamping device, is substantially extended with low expenditure in termsof design and production.

This object is solved through a disc brake in accordance withembodiments of the invention.

By this configuration of the arrangement of the bearing shell in theseating according to the invention, the bearing shell is practicallyclamped-in in the pivot direction of the brake lever so that, incontrast with the prior art, it cannot migrate beyond the originaldimension. The described milling, as could be observed up to now, isthereby effectively prevented.

Here, the type of the stop edges, i.e. their shape, can be distinct.What is important is that a deformation of the bearing shell through thecorrespondence with the roller is practically excluded.

Besides these functional advantages, which lead to a significantlyextended service life, from which a quite remarkable cost savingsmaterializes, the modification of the new bearing shell compared with aknown bearing shell is also significantly improved. This is especiallydue to the fact that DU sliding bearings can be employed, the slidinglayer of which can practically make do without sliding addition.

The production of the bearing shell and not least its fastening in theseating prove to be significantly simplified since no rotationprevention needs to be provided any longer.

Since the bearing shell retains its original shape permanently, evenafter an operating duration that is far beyond what can be currentlyachieved, an exact guidance of the roller is always provided.

As has been surprisingly shown, the configuration of the sliding bearingaccording to the invention leads to a substantial increase of therelevant load cycle numbers, wherein very high load absorptions can beachieved with relatively favorable sliding bearing materials.

The stop edges are preferentially introduced into the long-side edgeregions of the seating located opposite one another in a chip-removingmanner and can be distinct in their design. Instead of a chip-removingdesign, the stop edges can also be realized in a casting method.

The cross-sectional shape of the stop edges can be present in the mannerof a slot, possibly with minor demolding bevels, against which thebearing shell lies with edge-sided angled-off portions adapted thereto.

It is also contemplated to form the respective stop edge by a groove, inwhich a suitably formed edge of the bearing shell is held by flanging,crimping or clipping in place. Here, the groove can be embodied bothangularly and also as a fillet that is round or non-round in crosssection.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present inventionwill become apparent from the following detailed description of one ormore preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a disc brake according toan embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a brake lever of the disc brake in a perspective frontview.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show an exemplary embodiment of the invention by way ofa brake lever (FIG. 3A) represented in detail (FIG. 3B) in a lateralview.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show a further exemplary embodiment of the brake lever,likewise in a lateral view.

FIG. 5 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the invention in aschematic extract of a brake caliper.

FIGS. 6A and 6B show a further exemplary embodiment of the inventionlikewise by way of a brake lever represented in detail in a lateralview.

FIG. 7 shows the brake lever according to FIG. 6 in a perspective view.

FIG. 8 shows the brake lever according to FIGS. 6 and 7 in an explodedrepresentation.

FIG. 9 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the invention likewise byway of a brake lever represented in detail in a lateral view.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In FIG. 1, a disc brake for a commercial vehicle is shown in a sectionin schematic representation, which includes a brake disc 3, which isfastened to an axle of the commercial vehicle (not shown) and is engagedabout by a brake caliper 1, which is displaceable in the direction ofthe brake disc 3.

In the brake caliper 1, a clamping device 2 is arranged, with which upona brake application triggered by a preferentially pneumatically actuatedbrake cylinder 6, brake pads 4 can be pressed against the brake disc 3.

To this end, the clamping device 2 acts on two brake plungers which arenot shown and are arranged parallel and spaced from one another in abridge 8 and designed as adjusting screws.

The clamping device 2 has a brake lever 5 which is operationallyconnected with the brake cylinder 6 and, upon its actuation, is pivotedin the direction of the brake disc 3 about a roller 9, which runsparallel to the plane of the brake disc 3.

Furthermore, rolling bearings 11 are provided in the brake caliper 1,each with rolling bodies held in a cage, which support themselves on theone hand on the brake lever 5 which in this region is designed as a cam7 and on the inside of a wall of the brake caliper 1 on the other hand.

The roller 9, which serves as pivot bearing for the brake lever 5, liesin a bearing shell 10 of the brake lever 5, which in cross section islikewise adapted to the cross-sectional contour of the roller 9 as aconcave trough 12, in which the roller 9 lies on the other hand, whereinthe roller 9 jointly with the bearing shell 10 form a sliding bearing.

In FIG. 2, the brake lever 5 is shown as detail. Therein it is evidentthat the bearing shell 10 lies in a trough-like seating 13 of the brakelever 5, which is designed in a circle-shaped arc in cross section,wherein the depiction of the bearing shell 10 is not yet completelyinserted.

The two edge regions 14 of the seating 13 located opposite one anotherand forming the longitudinal edges are designed as stop edges, which inthis example are each present in the form of a slot 14, as they aredepicted enlarged in FIGS. 3A and 3B.

Angled legs 15 of the bearing shell 10 lie against these slots 14, whichlegs 15 form the longitudinal edges of the bearing shell 10 and servefor displacement protection of the bearing shell 10 in the pivotdirection of the brake lever 5.

The two bearing slots 14 located opposite one another are clearlynoticeable in FIGS. 3A and 3B, wherein FIG. 3B reflects an enlargedextract of the relevant region of FIG. 3A. It is visible that the slots14 located opposite one another have surfaces which are parallel to oneanother, which in each case form a stop for the legs 15.

With this embodiment, the bearing shell 10 merely has to be placed intothe seating 13. Retention against the insertion direction in the seating13 is effected by the mounted roller 9.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, which in FIG. 4Breflects an enlarged extract of the bearing region according to FIG. 4A,the stop edges which are located opposite one another, delimiting thetrough-like seating 13 longitudinally, are formed by grooves 16, forminglugs 17, against which the bearing shell 10 lies and by way of which thebearing shell 10 is locked in the transverse direction to thelongitudinal extent.

Inserting the bearing shell 10 in the seating 13 can take place bylateral pushing in or clipping in, wherein the latter takes place bypressing the bearing shell 10 transversely to the longitudinal axissubject to deforming the legs 15, which then because of the inherentrestoring forces spring into the grooves 16.

However it is also contemplated to form the grooves 16 by way offlanging or crimping.

In an exemplary embodiment, grooves 16 are formed which act as stop edgefor the longitudinal edges of the bearing shell 10 located oppositethem. In an alternative exemplary embodiment, the stop edges for thelongitudinal edges of the bearing shell 10 are formed by lugs 17 or atleast one protrusion. Here, the lug 17 or the protrusion can extend overthe length of the seating 13 or extend partially or in certain sectionsover the length of the seating 13. In a particular embodiment example,the lugs 17 are formed by grooves 16. Here, the grooves 16 can be formedin the region of the bearing seat or of the seating 13 or in an edgeregion outside the seating 13.

While with the exemplary embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-4 the bearingshell 10 is held in the brake lever 5, a further version is indicated inFIG. 5, in which the seating 13 is provided on the inside of a wall 19of the brake caliper 1, which is only schematically indicated here.Here, too, the trough-like seating 13 at its longitudinal edges locatedopposite one another, comprises stop edges delimiting the seating 13,here in the form of grooves 16. Obviously, other forms of the stop edgesare also possible here, for example slots 14.

In FIGS. 6A and 6B, a further embodiment of the invention is depicted,wherein FIG. 6B reflects an enlarged extract of the bearing regionaccording to FIG. 6A. In particular, in FIG. 6B it is evident that endregions 18 of the seating 13 and of the bearing shell 10 facing thegrooves 16 run tangentially as quasi extended legs which lie against thelugs 17. To this end, the clear distance of the lugs 17 to one anotheris smaller than the outer distance of the associated longitudinal edgesof the bearing shell 10 to one another.

In an exemplary embodiment which is not shown here, the lugs 17 can alsobe formed by protrusions. Here, the seating 13 and the protrusions areformed in two parts or three parts. The trough-like or arc of acircle-shaped seating 13, which in the exemplary embodiment shown inFIG. 6 runs out tangentially at the longitudinal edges, is delimited bya stop consisting of at least one further component, such as for exampleof a plate or a metal sheet. The portion of the plate or of the metalsheet described as stop here forms the protrusion. The plate or themetal sheet can, for example, be connected to the brake lever 5 by wayof wobble riveting. Almost any other types of connections are alsocontemplated.

In an exemplary embodiment, the brake lever 5, at least in its basicform, is a casting. In a first production version, the seating 13 whichis prepared in the cast is worked in a first step of calibrating ordimensional stamping. In a second method step, the tangential extensionseating 13 is milled with a form cutter or milled for forming the lug17. In an alternative production method, the two mentioned method stepsare combined and the trough-like seating 13 with the two grooves 16 isformed in an operational step with a suitable form cutter with theappropriate tolerances.

In a method step following thereon, the bearing shell 10 or two portions24, as are shown in FIG. 8, are pushed or clipped into the seating 13.

To exactly shape the seating 13, the same can be shaped in analternative production method by slotting or broaching.

As is reflected in FIGS. 7 and 8, the bearing shell 10 in this exemplaryembodiment consists of two shell-like portions 24, which are positionedon both sides of a recess 21 provided in the brake lever 5, i.e. in theseating 13, and extending in the pivot direction of the brake lever 5.Here, the two shell-like portions 24 are each pushed into the seating 13from a side of the brake lever 5 and axially secured by locking devices22, 23 that are connected to the roller 9.

In the recess 21, a locking ring 20 engages, which is preferentiallyguided with play on the roller 9, wherein the curvature of the recess 21corresponds to the outer radius of the locking ring 20, which otherwiseforms a displacement limit for the portions 24 in the direction of therecess 21.

FIG. 9 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention ina lateral view. Compared with the exemplary embodiment described by wayof the preceding figures, the bearing is formed without tangentialtransition. The arc of a circle-shaped seating 13 is delimited by thelugs 17, while the likewise arc of a circle-shaped in cross sectionbearing shell 10 lies against the lugs 17 on the edge side.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

-   1 Brake caliper-   2 Clamping device-   3 Brake disc-   4 Brake pads-   5 Brake lever-   6 Brake cylinder-   7 Cam-   8 Bridge-   9 Roller-   10 Bearing shell-   11 Rolling bearing-   12 Trough-   13 Seating-   14 Slot-   15 Leg-   16 Groove-   17 Lug-   18 End region-   19 Wall-   20 Locking ring-   21 Recess-   22 Locking device-   23 Locking device-   24 Portion

The foregoing disclosure has been set forth merely to illustrate theinvention and is not intended to be limiting. Since modifications of thedisclosed embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of theinvention may occur to persons skilled in the art, the invention shouldbe construed to include everything within the scope of the appendedclaims and equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A disc brake for a commercial vehicle,comprising: a brake caliper engageable over a brake disc; a clampingdevice arranged in the brake caliper, the clamping device comprising apivotable brake lever that acts on a bridge supporting at least onebrake plunger, wherein the brake lever directly or indirectly supportsitself on an inside wall of the brake caliper, a contact region of: (i)the bridge on the brake lever or (ii) the brake lever on the brakecaliper, is formed as a pivot bearing, the pivot bearing comprising abearing shell configured as a circle-shaped arc in cross-section, aseating in which the bearing shell is arranged, the bearing shell islocked in a pivoting direction of the brake lever by longitudinal edgesof the bearing shell located opposite one another resting againstlongitudinal stop edges delimiting a trough-shape of the seating.
 2. Thedisc brake as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stop edges are formed asslots.
 3. The disc brake as claimed in claim 2, wherein the slotslocated opposite one another have stop surfaces that are parallel to oneanother.
 4. The disc brake as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stop edgesare formed as lugs and/or grooves.
 5. The disc brake as claimed in claim4, wherein the longitudinal edges of the bearing shell are formed asangled legs which lie in slots or the grooves.
 6. The disc brake asclaimed in claim 4, wherein end regions of the seating and of thebearing shell facing the grooves run tangentially.
 7. The disc brake asclaimed in claim 4, wherein a clear distance of the lugs to one anotheris smaller than an outer distance of the associated longitudinal edgesof the bearing shell to one another.
 8. The disc brake as claimed inclaim 4, wherein the grooves are of angular or round design in crosssection.
 9. The disc brake as claimed in claim 4, wherein the grooves,following the inserting of the bearing shell, are formed by crimping orflanging.
 10. The disc brake as claimed in claim 4, wherein the bearingshell is clipped into the grooves.
 11. The disc brake as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the bearing shell is held in the seating by an abuttingroller or sliding edge.
 12. The disc brake as claimed in claim 1,wherein the bearing shell comprises two shell-shaped portions.
 13. Thedisc brake as claimed in claim 11, wherein on the roller a locking ringis guided, which engages in a recess provided in the trough-shapedseating of the brake lever and extending in the pivot direction of thebrake lever.
 14. The disc brake as claimed in claim 13, wherein acurvature radius of the recess corresponds to an outer radius of thelocking ring.
 15. A pivotable brake lever bearing arrangement for acommercial vehicle disc brake, comprising: a pivotable brake leverconfigured to pivot about a rotational axis during actuation of the discbrake; a pivot bearing encompassing the rotational axis, wherein thepivot bearing comprises a bearing seating and a bearing shell arrangedin the bearing seating, the bearing seating having a trough-shapeextending in a longitudinal direction of the bearing seating, thebearing shell is cross-sectionally configured as a circle-shaped arc,the bearing seating has oppositely located stop edges, and the bearingshell is locked in a pivoting direction of the brake lever vialongitudinal edges of the bearing shell located opposite one anotherthat abut against the stop edges.
 16. The pivotable brake lever bearingarrangement according to claim 15, wherein the stop edges are configuredas slots.
 17. The pivotable brake lever bearing arrangement according toclaim 16, wherein the slots located opposite one another have stopsurfaces arranged parallel to one another.
 18. The pivotable brake leverbearing arrangement according to claim 15, wherein the stop edges areformed as grooves.
 19. The pivotable brake lever bearing arrangementaccording to claim 15, wherein the stop edges are projecting lugs. 20.The pivotable brake lever bearing arrangement according to claim 19,wherein a clear distance of the projecting lugs to one another is lessthan an outer distance of the associated longitudinal edges of thebearing shell to one another.